There is a danger facing the church today, and it’s being fed to us by an “either/or” culture. We see it when followers of Jesus promote unity as agreement and uniformity, and surround themselves with others who think like, act like, and look like themselves.
It sounds so good, and yet it’s actually following a play right out of the enemy’s playbook that weakens the body while allowing the body to think it’s getting stronger. When we live in echo chambers, we strengthen our arguments, but we weaken our authority. True authority allows us to listen to and value voices that we may not fully agree with (and I’m talking about various opinions within the faith, not wrong beliefs outside the faith).
In the second chapter of Philippians, Paul suggested what life in the church would look like if we all had the same mindset as Jesus:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3 NIV, emphasis mine)
If you’re an athlete and meet a professional athlete in your sport, how do you approach him or her? Probably with an open mind and a note-taking app! The same goes for a teacher who has the opportunity to learn from a teacher with longer tenure and great teaching style. I know, as a pastor, I listen to greater communicators than me so I can learn from them and improve my craft.
I’m grieved that the church doesn’t tend to live this out. We get in our camps and tweet quotes from our favorite leaders in our camp. Reformed people quote Reformed leaders. Pentecostal people quote Pentecostal leaders. Prophetic people share the latest zinger from their favorite prophetic leader. Baptists retweet some popular white guy. Non-baptists retweet Beth Moore. And on and on it goes, each camp-driven quote revealing the pride that says our camp knows more than the other camp.
It’s 180 degrees from the command Paul gave to consider others better than ourselves. Translation? When there is a difference in belief or practice, instead of trying to show the “other” side where they missed it, humility would ask that side to show us where we did. What a witness that would be to a world that can’t get along and only sees every issue through either/or lenses!
Approach other believers with a humility that wants to learn more than teach; that wants to be instructed by them more than it wants to deconstruct them.
Not only will your faith grow, but so will the kingdom.
